The Last of Us - it's the time of the season

i played the first 3 hours or so of the remastered ps4 version and just wasn't into it at all. but does it get better after that? i'm assuming that i continue helping the girl get to wherever i was supposed to be taking her, but then something happens and i end up having to be her guardian more or less full time, and i don't want that and neither does she, but then we go through some shit together and we slowly bond while learning that in this terrible land of zombies and death and terror, the capability to love and be loved is ultimately the thing worth living for? meanwhile solving little puzzles, moving ladders around, and judiciously saving ammo and going through lots of cutscenes where the little girl is moody and hates me but is slowly starting to respect me? and at one point i get really injured (or maybe just straight up die) and end up playing as her for a significant portion of the game? i'm just making all this up and would like to be very wrong and surprised. so many people adore this game, so it makes me think that there must be something more to it.

That was a really assholey way to ask that question, sorry. I guess it’s better phrased as something like “is this more of a really well polished action-adventure game, or is there something really innovative about it that I haven’t seen yet?” That sounds assholey too. Maybe I’m just an assholey. It didn’t help that I played through the first hours of the game with someone who was adamant that it was the greatest game of all time, so I was naturally kind of inclined to pick it apart (internally) as I went, which is kind of an assholey tendency, I know

xpyour plot guesses are pretty much otm hahaas you suspect it's a well polished action adventure game I remember someone (on here?) calling these sort of games "content tourism", being led thru a linear path of set pieces while giving you the illusion of agency

As someone who feels that story is not inherently but in actuality an afterthought (at best) in most videogames, I was surprised to find myself getting a lil emotional during the opening portion of this game.

They've made a point of emphasizing that story is an important context for the apparent ultra violence of the sequel. Likewise, as discussed elsewhere, there is apparently more emotional payoff to Uncharted 4 if you've played the previous games. Most games and esp. game series have mere scenarios or setups for action, or boast pretty elliptical/confusing/optional narratives. But as graphics get better and better and more and more "realistic," and games intersect and overlap with the qualities of feature films - and as feature films become more and more like video games - I assume there will be a gradual but still ever greater emphasis on story.

Has there been a high profile (or low profile) collaboration with a game developer and A+ author or screenwriter yet?

i'd say there was plenty of context for the ultra-violence in the first game (at least, beyond the first Uncharted, for instance). the second one looks even more violent, but that world has already been established as pretty sickening so i wasn't that taken aback. Plus The Walking Dead has been on for like eight seasons now and has really normalized this kind of thing, for better or worse

Hold up, is Life is Strange kind of a choose your own adventure game? Or are there control mechanics? If it's the former seems better suited for something like the Switch. Even then, I got Thimbleweed Park for the Switch way back and haven't really played it because I didn't find the gameplay (as such) compelling. The reviews of Life is Strange are super strong, but without seeking spoiler-y gameplay vids it looks like maybe it's a bunch of cut scenes connected by asking you to pick from a pair of choices?